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Security Checklist for Startups

Q: What does the startup security checklist cover?

The checklist covers six domains: infrastructure hardening, authentication and access control, API security, dependency management, CI/CD pipeline security and cloud configuration. Each section includes actionable items that startup engineering teams can implement immediately.

Ship fast without shipping vulnerabilities.

This free security checklist for startups covers six critical domains: infrastructure hardening, authentication and access control, API security, dependency management, CI/CD pipeline security and cloud configuration. Each item is actionable and prioritized for engineering teams that need to secure their stack without slowing down development velocity.

Most startup breaches exploit basic security gaps that a simple checklist would have caught. We built this checklist from patterns we see repeatedly in penetration tests of early-stage companies. Every item below is something we have seen exploited in production.

The Checklist

Startup Security Checklist

01 - Infrastructure

Infrastructure Hardening

[ ] Enable firewall rules. Deny all inbound by default
[ ] Disable SSH password authentication. Use key-based auth only
[ ] Run services as non-root users
[ ] Enable automatic security updates for OS packages
[ ] Configure TLS 1.3 on all public endpoints
[ ] Set HTTP security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options)
[ ] Remove default credentials from all services
[ ] Enable logging and forward to a central collector

02 - Authentication

Authentication and Access Control

[ ] Enforce MFA on all admin and developer accounts
[ ] Use bcrypt or argon2 for password hashing (never MD5 or SHA1)
[ ] Implement account lockout after failed login attempts
[ ] Set session timeouts and rotate session tokens
[ ] Apply principle of least privilege to all roles
[ ] Audit third-party OAuth scopes quarterly
[ ] Rotate API keys and service account credentials regularly

03 - API

API Security

[ ] Authenticate every API endpoint (no unauthenticated routes)
[ ] Implement rate limiting on all endpoints
[ ] Validate and sanitize all input server-side
[ ] Use parameterized queries for all database operations
[ ] Return generic error messages (no stack traces to clients)
[ ] Enforce authorization checks on every resource access
[ ] Log all API requests with timestamps and source IPs

04 - Dependencies

Dependency Management

[ ] Pin all dependency versions in lock files
[ ] Run npm audit or pip audit in CI pipeline
[ ] Review new dependencies before adding them
[ ] Remove unused dependencies quarterly
[ ] Monitor for CVEs in your dependency tree
[ ] Verify package integrity with checksums
[ ] Use a private registry for internal packages

05 - CI/CD

CI/CD Pipeline Security

[ ] Store secrets in a vault (never in environment variables or code)
[ ] Run SAST scanning on every pull request
[ ] Require code review approval before merge
[ ] Sign commits and verify signatures in CI
[ ] Scan container images for vulnerabilities before deploy
[ ] Restrict deployment permissions to named individuals
[ ] Maintain audit logs for all pipeline executions

06 - Cloud

Cloud Configuration

[ ] Audit S3/GCS bucket permissions (no public read/write)
[ ] Enable CloudTrail or equivalent audit logging
[ ] Use IAM roles instead of long-lived access keys
[ ] Enable encryption at rest for all data stores
[ ] Review security group rules monthly
[ ] Enable billing alerts for anomaly detection
[ ] Configure VPC flow logs for network monitoring

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